154 
SPARROW-HAWIC. 
friend of his, “ on climbing a tree to one of their 
nests, and when within a very few yards of it, 
was attacked by the female bird, and his cap, at 
one stroke, sent to the ground.” 
The male has the upper plumage of an uniform 
pale blackish grey; tip of the tail and nuchal 
collar white ; quills clove brown, darkest at the 
tips, with clouded bars on their inner webs. 
Tail with a dark bar after the white tip, shading 
upwards, and three bars afterwards indistinct 
above, decidedly marked beneath. Auriculars, 
buff orange, darker along the shafts. Throat and 
chin pale ochraceous, with dark shafts ; breast, 
belly, vent, and thighs, ochraceous ; shafts dark, 
and thickly marked with reddish buff orange ; 
in the centre of the belly tinted with brown ; 
under tail coverts white. Length about twelve 
inches; from shoulders to tip of fifth quill, eight 
and a quarter. 
The female, with the upper parts clove 
brown, darkest on the crown, and sometimes 
tinted with rufous ; on the tips of the auriculars, 
above the eyes, and on the bind head, the tips of 
the feathers only are dark, and the light bases 
appearing produce a pale line above the eyes, 
and a variegation with white on the hind head ; 
the quills and tail are barred with narrow darker 
bands, conspicuous on the under surface of both. 
The under parts are of a delicate yellowish 
